A Determination of the Density and Dilatation of Pure Water of Known Isotopic Composition

Abstract

For over a century water has been the most commonly used working standard of density and its history has been recently reviewed by Menache and Girard (1). The basic measurements of the maximum density of water were made at the BIPM (2) and the dilatation measurements were made by Chappuis (3) and by Thiesen et al. (4). Despite the discrepancies between their results it is remarkable that no fewer than four sets of tables based on this work have been published between 1937 and 1973. A fifth table has recently been published by Kell (5).